What a Mess
by Oh-Juice
Summary: Set after the episode "Theatricality". Just started, but have everything planned out. : My first story, so please leave me some good feedback!
1. I'm Yours

Baby-gate was the worst thing that had ever happened to Finn. The worst. He couldn't think of any part of his life that could have compared except for when he lost his father to Operation Desert Storm, but he was a baby then, so it wasn't like he could remember that. He didn't even know what was worse; there was the fact that he had gone along with it for months, thinking that the baby was actually his, there was the shock of finding out that the baby wasn't actually his, or the blow he felt to his stomach every morning he woke up afterwards. So when Rachel Berry asked him out, Finn didn't deny her. He was hurt. He wanted someone to help pick up the pieces, and there was Rachel, drooling on his shoes like always. While Rachel had thought blindly that their relationship was the definition of true love, Finn had been a little dead inside. He was wearing whatever he could find around his house, sleeping away most of his life, and skipping school for the littlest things just to get away. He found out quickly that he didn't want to be with Rachel. Not at all. She wouldn't stop talking, she was obsessive when he needed space, she was just a little insane... Finn just wanted out. Then it was just the hard part; getting around to doing it. By the time Finn did actually break up with her, she was completely sure that what they had was something real. Then, he'd gone out with Santana and Brittany. That was a pretty bad experience. After that... He figured that Rachel wasn't all that bad. She wasn't the best girlfriend ever (did she compare to Quinn? Probably not.), but when he was with her, he wasn't lonely. She didn't ditch him. She truly seemed to like Finn for who he was. But it was too late. Then she had that Jesse guy. Some guy that she had met at a record store or something was going to replace Finn, the boy that Rachel had been infatuated with (infatuated is the word, right?) for more than half a year? Sure, okay, Finn thought to himself sarcastically when he heard that. Plus, he was competition; he was the lead of vocal adrenaline. Finn wasn't going to give up that easily though, even if Rachel thought she didn't need him anymore. He wasn't going to give up that easily, and he had made that clear. Rachel would be his again eventually. It was just a matter of when.

"Hey Rachel, " Finn said, forcing a little smile onto his face when he walked into the music room. This week's project for glee was to sing something assigned to them and make it their own. Mr. Schue always had this sort of weird knack for pairing up people who already had connections in the class. I mean, the guy paired him and Rachel up almost every week... Or maybe they were just the favorites. Either way, he got paired up with her a lot, so it wasn't much of a surprise that they got paired up this week too. It was harder and harder to be around Rachel now though, especially when her and Jesse were practically undressing each other with their eyes. It made Finn sick to his stomach.

"Hello Finn. Did you look at your sheet music over the weekend? " Finn glanced over as Rachel moved around the table in one fluid motion to stand a few feet away from him, and then sat down on the bench with her hands neatly folded onto one of her crossed legs.

"Oh, uh.. " Finn glanced over to the blue seat he had sat at yesterday, seeing the sheet music he hadn't even taken home, then quickly met Rachel's eyes again. "I may have glanced over it once or twice.. I don't really know. I had a lot of stuff going on, ya' know?"

Rachel's disappointed glance fell on him (or rose to him... He was like, twelve or thirteen inches taller), but she didn't make a verbal response. As much as she had a busy schedule of her own, she understood that Finn had a lot to deal with as well, and Finn as thankful for that. He had basketball, glee club, a social life, a new-found job at Sheets n' Things, and drivers ed. Not to mention sleeping. Sleeping took a pretty big piece of the pie when it came to how a boy Finn's age's time was taken up. Oh, and pie. Finn liked pie... "Well, I presume that you will just have to follow my lead then. You at least know the lyrics, correct?"

Finn blinked. What was the song? Wait... Had they even picked out a song in the first place? How could he let this slip through the cracks? This of all things.. Way to win Rachel's heart back, Finn. "Of course," He said after a little hesitation, and he felt a rock settle in his stomach. What was he doing? He didn't know the lyrics... He didn't know the song they were doing!

But seeing the satisfactory smile cross Rachel's face made Finn respond with a weary boyish grin of his own. Rachel sat up from her seat at the piano and led him up to the stage. As Finn followed, she glanced around before calling out, "Brad?" into the open air. In seconds, the ginger piano player rounded the corner and took a seat at the piano.

"Whoa, how'd he just.. appear?" Finn asked, clearly not expecting him to, and almost completely forgetting about his whole song-dilemma.

"He's always around here somewhere, " Rachel responded as-a-matter-of-factually with a shrug. Being Rachel Berry, she couldn't practice her singing at home, due to the noise complaints from neighbors, so Finn assumed that she spent a lot of time here practicing. No wonder she knew that he'd be here. "Our song in A major, please."

Finn heard a familiar tune start up on the piano, one he recognized as usually being played on the guitar. But as the intro played, he still couldn't figure out why it sounded so familiar, or what song it was. It wasn't until he heard Rachel start to sing. "Hey, hey-ey-ey-ey-ey, hey-ey-ey-ey-ey," To the song's melody. Oh. Finn felt a light-bulb go off above his head, and a small smile shot onto his face. Jason Mraz was one of the few modern pop artists that Finn could say that he actually liked, since he was more of a classics sort of guy, so he did actually know the lyrics already.

"Well, you done- done me and you bet I felt it, I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted, I fell right through the cracks, now I'm trying to get back," Finn sang, his eyes unintentionally scanning her body as he did. He didn't understand why people picked on Rachel. She looked like she wore fine clothes to him (not that he was a fashion expert or anything), and, well, she had a great body; the cheerios that made fun of her were probably just jealous... Finn forced his eyes back to her face and let a true smile cross his face, probably the first one he'd felt in a long time.

"Before the cool done run out, i'll be giving it my bestest, " He heard Rahel pipe in, her angelic voice chiming in with his attempted reggae tone wonderfully in harmony, as usual, and glanced towards her as they continued; "and nothings gonna stop me but divine intervention, i recon it's again my turn, to win some or learn some."

"But I won't hesitate no more," Rachel smiled over at him. Why did she do this to him when she knew how much he wanted her now? He thought it was almost cruel, but at the same time, she probably had no clue what she seemed to do to him recently...

"No more, it cannot wait; I'm yours," Finn glanced over into her eyes, and he felt a sense of nostalgia for how they used to be able to sing and dance and have it not be so damn complicated. Even when he had Quinn and the baby, everything seemed just to be so easy between them. Now he had to watch the way he acted around her, because god forbid her boyfriend would see. "I'm yours," Finn smiled crookedly a little as his eyes met hers again. He didn't realize how close to her he was getting until he could practically see a little reflection of himself in her eyes. Brad had stopped playing, and Finn caught him leaving the room in the corner of his eye (Finn assumed that he was just going to stay for the time alloted to practice, and since that was up, he was going to leave), before Finn did something he just knew he would regret doing later. He leaned in quick and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

* * *

Earth to Rachel Berry. Earth to Rachel. Rachel. RACHEL.

Rachel Berry's mind was usually a very organized place. She could think of many things at once, and was fairly intelligent. She could handle thinking about an upcoming Spanish test, new solos and duets for glee (of course, with her as a lead), her boyfriend, Animal Sweaters Monthly (the magazine was supposed to be delivered to her house every first Monday of the month, but it happened to be late that month), her appearance, what other people thought of her, where in the school was going to be slushie-free at any given hour of the day, ballet routines... The point was that Rachel's mind could handle many thoughts at once.

But when Finn kissed her, it was like a TSUNAMI of thoughts.

It was like Rachel's mind, which was usually ten times as talkative and questionably obnoxious as what escaped her mouth, suddenly started screaming at her in a medley of emotions.

HE ISN'T WORTH YOUR TIME!

HE BROKE YOUR HEART!

YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND!

YOU SHOULD SING ABOUT THIS! (The obsessive musical part of her liked to chime into everything; what could she say?)

FINN IS KISSING YOU!

MAYBE HE DOESN'T REALLY CARE!

FINN IS KISSING YOU!

JESSE IS-

FINN MOTHER FLIPPING HUDSON IS KISSING YOU!

Rachel's mind went numb and all of the voices screaming at her to stop or not became white noise. Her hands ran up and wrapped around the back of his neck innately and she couldn't help but kiss him back just as sweetly as he kissed her. She felt his hands pull her in by the waist a little closer once he realized that she wasn't pulling away and she smiled the littlest bit. She missed this. She missed him... She wasn't over him, and she really knew that, but Jesse was perfect. He was everything Rachel could ask for in someone... He was talented, handsome, determined, strong, honest, caring... But he was no Finn Hudson. Finn had flaws, and she knew that, but even with his flaws, he was still the one who made her smile, made her laugh, sent little shivers down her spine when he looked at her, especially how he did more recently after he said one of the most sexy things that she had ever heard anyone say; "I don't give up that easy."

Rachel's eyebrows furrowed together as she felt him pull away from the kiss, and he didn't look happy. Rachel opened her mouth to say something along the lines of, "Did I do something wrong?" but probably stretched out into some insanely long monologue that would drive Finn into such intense confusion that he would collapse, but she was interrupted as he said something that made her frown in response as well.

"Rachel, I can't deal with this... Seeing you every day with him. It hurts too much... I mean, I like you, and you like me. Why can't it be that easy?"

Rachel stared back at Finn with a look that soon turned a little angry, clearly taking him by surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry Finn. And it wasn't like this when I liked you and you were with Quinn? I kissed you in the bowling alley, and you said you would be with me instead of Quinn, but then you didn't. So why should I break up with Jesse so you can be with me? That doesn't seem fair at all, now, does it? You didn't even appreciate me when you had me."

"I was stupid then," Finn said, almost sounding like he was begging.

Damn those puppy-eyes of his.

"You were /acting/ stupid then," Rachel corrected him, meeting his eyes from where she stood a foot or so below his height. "Finn, you were never stupid." Rachel hated how people called him things like that. Finn wasn't stupid, he just needed a little more help than most people with school. He was brilliant at somethings... Singing for example. Not as brilliant as herself, of course, but brilliant none the less. And football. It took some sort of intellect to choose for the football plays, she supposed, but she was no sports expert. She got the gist of it from going to all of Finn's basketball games when they were an item (if you could call it that), but she only knew about the basic idea of the game, not any of the plays. She was obviously less sports-smart then him, which proved her point that he was, in fact, not stupid.

"I... I'm yours," Finn repeated, one hand digging into his pockets and the other scratching the back of his neck anxiously.

"Listen, Finn," Rachel responded softly, seeing how tense he seemed to be getting, and caved. "I'm not sure about anything... But I have to go. Jesse is taking me out to dinner tonight, and he is supposed to pick me up in the parking lot at-" she checked her watch and glanced back up to him, "-five minutes ago. I... I'm going to think about your offer though. Because I really do care about you, Finn. But... I have to go."

The look of Finn's face broke her heart, but she had prior commitments to her wonderful boyfriend, whom she had just cheated on. She felt butterflies, no, scissors cut away at her stomach as she left the choir room. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she would not cry. She was trained in the arts, so she could put on a normal facade for that night. She had a beautiful, perfect boy with her, but she had a wonderful, goofy, determined, dopey boy that made her smile every time that she saw him who was still waiting for her. It broke her heart, but she had to make a decision, before she would have neither.


	2. I'll Wait For You

goldstar1994: hello finn. (:  
hudsonfive: oh, uh, hi rachel  
goldstar1994: after today... i was just wondering about something.  
hudsonfive: what?  
goldstar1994: i'm not sure if this is too personal of a question or not, but considering the circumstances we are currently in, i couldn't help but ask. did you and santana actually, excuse my boldness, do something while you and her were an item? you made it seem like you may have.  
hudsonfive: oh, no. i mean, not like... that. i mean. yeah, no, we didn't do anything.

Finn's fingers typed across his iPhone, and he felt a punch to his gut. He was lying to her again. Well... She lied to me before, he thought to himself, like just last week with the music video. But this is a bigger lie, the other part of him argued. Too late now... He just didn't want her to get worked up, since it didn't mean anything. And it wasn't like this was going to affect anything...

goldstar1994: oh, good. i mean, nice to know. i have to go now though, so i'll talk to you later?  
hudsonfive: yeah, sure

Sigh. He could just tell this was going to come back and bite him later.

* * *

The night had gone over perfectly. Rachel had the perfect dinner with her perfect boyfriend who was dressed in the perfect outfit at a perfect little italian resturaunt (where they served the most perfect food), then she got driven to his house in his perfect car to his perfect home and got swept off her feet to his perfect room, where he planted a perfect kiss on her lips. Everything seemed just perfect. But if everything truly was as perfect as it seemed, then why did Rachel feel so empty?

Well, she had cheated on her boyfriend, but that wasn't really the biggest thing that was eating at her. It hurt, but it wasn't truly what the problem was. It was the fact that she now had to choose; Jesse or Finn?

Perfect, relatable, talented Jesse, who she could sing her feelings to; he was a gentleman, he truly seemed to like her for her, despite being the competition, and took her to the Wiggles concert on their first date (which, she may add, was amazing. The wiggles have true performing talent). She thought she might even love him. He was Jesse, the one who had picked her up when Finn had dropped her and broke her heart to pieces. WIth Jesse, everything was easy. She could just love and be loved.

Finn wasn't ever so easy.

He was simple-minded, but sweet, boyish, but determined. Rachel and him had experiences that were less than satisfactory before then, and she knew that even if they got together then, it wouldn't ever be easy. Finn had popularity to protect, and she didn't know if that was still a priority over her or not. Finn had betrayed her. Finn didn't always agree with her like Jesse did... But Finn made her swoon every time he entered the room. He was one of the only people that could truly intimidate her at times, and that made her want to be around him even more; it made her curious. Not to mention, Finn was adorable. He was questionably a giant (that didn't matter to Rachel; she liked her men tall. If anything, she liked that he could take her in his arms so easily) and his hair was always a little fuzzy or messy at the top. His deep brown eyes, his striped sweaters, his light freckles... And their chemistry? Undeniable.

Not to mention, he'd finally told her the truth about Santana, she thought to herself, a little smile unintentionally coming to her lips. So she wasn't the last virgin on earth, hallelujah. You know, not that affected her at all or anything, she corrected herself, because she had a boyfriend, and Finn could do what he wanted.

But he didn't, she reminded herself, that feeling of happiness washing over her again.

But Finn wasn't to be trusted anymore. He had broken her heart one too many times.

She knew she couldn't have both. She couldn't hurt either of them like that. She'd have to hurt one if she had to choose, but at least she could avoid hurting both of them.

This night was nowhere near perfect.

She loved kissing Jesse. She loved how he looked at her like she was the only one in the room, how he was so gentle, like she was made of glass. But the whole time, all she could think about is how she told Finn how she would make a decision, how she'd choose soon. She didn't want to choose. She wanted both of them.

"Jesse," Rachel said into the kiss she couldn't enjoy with her boyfriend. By that time, Rachel was sitting up on the bed and Jesse was leaning into her with his hands locked against the bed frame behind her. Thinking she was just moaning his name or something, Jesse didn't pull away. "/Jesse/, stop," Rachel said more firmly. As Jesse leaned away to look toward her questioningly, Rachel's arms unintentionally wrapped together around her torso like they normally did when she had business to address.

"What's wrong?" Jesse asked, not seeming that genuinely concerned. He just seemed confused and a little offended.

"Jesse... We need to talk. I'm just not that sure about this whole situation."

"Situation?" Jesse repeated, his eyebrows raising, as if the way she called this a situation was amusing. Everything was so technical with Rachel, especially with relationships. It was uncharted territory, and she always needed to be a little prepared, so in a way, it was just like a 'situation' for her.

"Yes. This boyfriend-girlfriend... situation," She replied, her lips curving into a frown. What was she doing? She wasn't even sure if Finn was serious about this...

Jesse's eyes shot open and he suddenly looked a whole lot more concerned than he did before, seemingly realizing what she was talking about just then. "Did I do something to offend you? If so, I am truly sorry, and I'll try not to do it again, but let's not be too hasty. I can change." Oh Jesse, Rachel thought to herself with a pang to her heart. Perfect, perfect Jesse...

"No, it's not that. It's just..." For once, Rachel Berry was at a loss for words. She tried to come up with some excuse that wasn't technically lying, but nothing came to mind. She couldn't lie to him. She cared far too much about him to lie blatantly and go on having feelings for Finn.

"Is it Hudson?" Jesse asked in a heartbeat, his eyes meeting hers.

Rachel couldn't lie to him.

She nodded.

Jesse pursed his lips and nodded, not really sure what to respond with at first. Rachel tried to analyze his thoughts. They could be anywhere from "Rachel, you are such a slut," to "Finn Hudson, you are a dead man." But Jesse didn't seem like the type to actually say any of those things. But his face was experessionless for what seemed like minutes. Hours. Days. Rachel sat there, her stomach feeling like a brick and her throat felt so dry that she could have been without water for days without feeling the slightest difference. She needed a drink of water... Please, say something, Rachel begged as if he could hear her thoughts, anything.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Rachel responded to his cryptic answer in something just above a whisper, clearly a little shaken by telling him this, and didn't meet his eyes.

"Rachel, I know that you still have feelings for him, and I'm willing to wait a few days for you to come up with an answer to whether you still want to be with me or not. I'll wait for you."

This didn't make anything better. Now Rachel felt for Jesse even more now that he was willing to wait for her too... Why couldn't she just have both? "Okay," Rachel responded quietly in possibly the smallest reply that she had ever spoken to anybody in her life. She felt a kiss planted onto her forehead as she got up and bit her lip before leaving his house, feeling even more broken than before.

* * *

Finn had Rachel on his mind. Well, nowadays, he always had Rachel on his mind. She was like a tumor or something... But not in a bad way. A good tumor, you know, at times. Good unless that tumor also happened to have another tumor trailing after her, giving her kisses and all that. Finn wanted her. He didn't realize it until recently, but he wanted Rachel more than just about anything right then. Quinn had Puck and, well, Finn could finally accept that him and Quinn were over and always would be. And.. Well, he'd always liked Rachel. But now she wouldn't get out of his head.

The weirdest part? He wasn't complaining...

Finn closed his locker the next day after storing his clean gym clothes and locking it (before then, he didn't even have to since he would just expect people to leave him alone, but now that he had the jocks doing stupid crap like spraying mayonaise in his backpack as a gay joke, he didn't take any chances), and his jaw tightened as he saw Jesse walk up to him in the hall.

Jesse.

Finn hated Jesse. In his mind, the guy was only there to use Rachel for his own selfish purposes, probably for Vocal Adrenaline, and was going to break her heart eventually. He was cheesy and stupid... And Finn just hated how perfect the guy seemed in comparison. Except, you know, being evil, Finn thought to himself bitterly as he narrowed his eyes at the dude, seeing that he didn't seem to be leaving any time soon. Ugh, he didn't want to deal with this today. He glanced around him before back to the guy and asked, "What do you want," trying to keep the acid out of his voice. He didn't want to be caught being mean to Rachel's boyfriend, no matter how much he hated him. That wouldn't look good at all, now would it?

"Hudson. Back off from my girlfriend."

"I don't know what yo-" Finn started but was quickly cut off.

"She already told me about how you two did something," Jesse said, sounding pissed. Technically, he didn't hear that they actually did something, but he was just throwing a line out...

"She did?"

Bite.

"Yes. So back off. She is with me, if you haven't noticed, and we are perfectly happy."

"If she did something with me, then what makes you so sure?" Finn asked, his hands balling into fists. Finn wasn't going to back off that easy, and what he said was true. If Rachel was truly happy with Jesse, she wouldn't have kissed him back. He felt a satisfactory half-smile cross his face when he realized that what he said wasn't even just a bluff. Go Finn.

"You like Rachel, correct? Well, she said she wanted to wait to lose it, and well, I bet she would be pretty disappointed once she hears about that 'rumor' that's going around the school about you and Santana, right from the source... I'm sure you wouldn't like that. So how about you back off from my girlfriend, and you can go hook up with some more school sluts, m'kay?" Finn's eyes widened. It was sort of implied that it might have happened between them when him and Rachel were talking, but now that she didn't actually lose it... Well, Finn didn't want that getting out at all. Wait, it was getting out? But that didn't even mean anything! The only reason he did it was because he thought that Rachel and Jesse were going to do it... He thought about her the whole time anyways (all two minutes of it). But Rachel wouldn't believe that, he thought to himself. She would think that he was just toying with her feelings again and trying to be a womanizer or something, especially if she heard it from Santana or Brittany. Finn's fists felt like they were on fire from the amount of pure muscle he was squeezing his fingers together with.

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

Finn hesitated before giving out a sigh. He had nothing on Jesse. He was squeaky clean. "Fine, I'll back off," He said, defeated. Great. If he avoided her, she'd think he was playing with her heart. If he didn't avoid her, Jesse would get Santana to tell her all about that night at the hotel, and then she'd think that he was playing with her heart. It was a double-sided dagger. He lost her either way.

"Good. It's nice that we've come to an understanding, Hudson."

Finn sighed as Jesse walked away. Figures that Finn couldn't have Rachel either. It's like everything he did just set him up for disappointment recently. He couldn't ever WIN.

"Hello Finn!" Finn turned to see Rachel behind him. He was about to say something along the lines of "Hey, Rach," before he caught Jesse at the corner of his eye, staring them down. Rachel didn't seem to notice. "Please don't talk to me." Finn said without emotion, and started towards his next class, slamming his locker behind him.

He felt Rachel's confused stare on his back as he walked away from her frozen figure, his hands as tight as metal coils. Sorry, Rachel, he thought to himself as if she could hear him, and let out a big exhale as he left her standing there.


	3. What was this?

Rachel was in pieces. Here, she thought that Finn had changed and wanted her. Really wanted her, wasn't just using her or manipulating her. And now, he wasn't even talking to her. She tried to talk to him in the hall the other day, and he just blew her off and went to his next class like she was last weeks garbage. She hadn't felt such heartache since he told her that he didn't even want to be her boyfriend. Now he was acting like it, but then he just... Left.

Jesse would wait for her. He would wait for her to make her decision, and he wouldn't complain. Jesse never complained. He never lied or played with her heart-strings. He was everything right for her. Determined, sweet, caring, suave, even a senior. Rachel Berry was dating the world's most perfect man, and she had almost completely left him for some boy that was never truly going to appreciate her and love her back?

She had obviously made a bad decision. Finn wasn't ready for this, and Jesse was. Her decision wasn't so hard anymore.

She would choose Jesse.

Rachel tried to smile as she walked down the halls, but it wasn't so easy. Usually, she could portray any emotion at any time (it was just something you needed to do if you were destined to become a star and face paparazzi, of course), but it was sort of hard to. Half of her thought that she was the one who blew it, not Finn. That part of her thought that she should have just dumped Jesse on the spot and gone running off with him, and maybe Finn wouldn't be acting this way. But she cared for Jesse. She wouldn't just do that to him for something that might happen with Finn, especially with his current track record when it came to telling her he liked her and then running off...

Rachel turned a corner-

SPLASH.

Corn-syrup dripped down her back and Rachel's lips made a complete O when she realized what had just happened to her. By then, being slushied in the halls shouldn't really have been such a surprise, but it still caught her off guard how completely stupid and how ignorant these kids were of this rising star. When she was famous, they would all be lining up for an autograph, and she would throw a hot mocha latte into THEIR faces.

As Rachel ran her fingers across her eyes and flicked the gathered slushie at the ground with the biggest frown on her face, she glanced over to see Finn with the other jocks. He gave her a glance, but quickly averted his eyes back to the team, letting out what seemed like a fake laugh, clearly just trying to get the other jocks' approval.

It was just like him to put his reputation before her.

He always seemed to have something in the way of loving her back. It was Quinn, it was the baby, it was not getting over Quinn, it was Jesse, it was Santana and Brittany, it was his popularity, it was... It was his life. They just couldn't be compatable, could they? Not with him constantly putting his other priorities before her. Sure, if someone asked her to go perform on broadway or to have a recording contract, she'd put that before Finn Hudson, but besides that and currently Jesse, Finn came first.

But that was in the past. She was done being walked all over like a doormat.

She stomped off to Jesse's locker, and his face once she got there was complete surprise. He really shouldn't have been all surprised like that. She was at the bottom of the social food chain. It was just natural that she get slushied once or twice a week. He was new though, she assumed, and this was the first time that he had seen her persnally slushied. Once he understood, he gave her a little sympathetic look. he glanced towards the bathrooms and took her slightly sticky hand before saying, "Come on, I'll help clean you off."

Right then, she knew that she had made the right decision.

* * *

Finn, you are such an idiot. Why did you have to lie? Maybe she would have understood why you slept with Santana, but now it's a little too late for that. You are screwed, totally and completely screwed. If you ignore her, you are a jerk for leading her on and kissing her. If you keep hanging out with her, Jesse tells her about Santana, and she hates you. You lose either way. Jesse was too smart for him. He was lost in this game of strategical tic tac toe.

He was losing in more ways than one.

As he ran down the basketball court, the orange ball glided across the court with him. He could feel his heart beating in his forehead. His legs were on fire. He felt his muscles tense and a sweat work up above his brow. The crowd's roar in the background and the sound of shoes bouncing against the rubber floors, the ball bouncing, all of it was just ringing in his ears. He couldn't think. He ran and jumped to make a shot, but as soon as he did, the ball was quickly slapped out of his hand and he fell to the ground, just crouching how he landed for a few seconds, letting out a big exhale.

He felt the crowd's eyes on his back as his knees rested on the ground and his head was tilted down in shame. He heard the painful buzzer as the game ended. He'd let his team down, he'd let himself down. He'd let Rachel down, and that's what hurt the most. He couldn't do anything right lately.

He just collapsed to the ground as everyone around him filtered out of the double doors and either celebrated or went home.

As he got up after a minute of breathing (he was sort of afraid that if he got up earlier, he might do something stupid like kick a chair over or kick a locker), he walked over to the lockers to get his stuff and go home. He planned to go home and collapse on his bed, and hopefully not wake up for a long, long time. He was going to survive off of sammiches and gatorade and sleep in until 2 am.

He felt dead inside, and it was painfully apperent.

Then, Finn heard something. It sounded like a little "bzz" noise. His eyebrows furrowed together, and he walked over to the locker. It was his iPhone vibrating against the metal bottom of the little box. He picked it up, and there was one new I.M. He looked confused. As he read it, he didn't know exactly how to feel...

goldstar1994: finn, i'm really sorry. i know you don't know what for yet... but when you do see what i did, please forgive me. and please don't stop talking to me, even if it did seem selfish, okay? can you just promise me that?

Finn didn't respond.

Why was SHE apologizing? It wasn't like she was the one who did something horrible to him. He was the one who made a mistake...

When he walked into the choir room for glee rehearsal the next day, he figured out what she meant and his fists curled into tight coils at his sides. His nostals flared and his jaw tightened.

He punched a wall.

He was going to kill Jesse.

* * *

"Rachel, you can't just do that!"

"Finn, I can do what I feel like, okay? I am my own person, and I'm not going to take orders from someone who doesn't even take the time to listen to be, god forbid talk to me in the halls!"

"That doesn't mean you can just abandon us weeks before reigonals!"

"I don't want to be here anymore, and neither does Jesse. We are tired of being taken for granted."

Rachel Berry was quitting New Directions to join Vocal Adrenaline.

Before you call her a traitor, she thought this over. Those kids hadn't been appreciating her star potencial. I mean, she had to give away HER solos on a regular basis. The nerve. Not to mention, one big reason she was there was a mister Finn Hudson, who was now completely ignoring her, except for this one conversation. She guessed that he would lash out at her like this when he figured out that she as leaving, but it was all for the best. Now she could be with Jesse without it being foul play, and Finn could get on with his life as he was doing before without putting in all that extra effort to ignore her. It would all work out for the better. New Directions would surely lose, but Rachel... Well, Rachel didn't like to think about that.

"Why are you even talking to me now?" Rachel said back in an acidic tone. They were alone in the choir room, as Finn had asked her to come. Rachel guessed that it was okay to talk to her as long as the other students weren't around to judge. She could barely see what she had ever saw in that boy anymore.

"... Rachel, I swear, it's not what you think. It's... Complicated." He looked sincere, but Rachel wasn't going to fall for that.

"No, it's very simple. You are scared that I'm going to affect your popularity. You aren't any different from when we broke up."

"Your boyfriend is /using you!/" He blurted out, and Rachel's face turned into a snarl. Okay, ignoring her was one thing, but bringing her boyfriend into a conversation that didn't even really involve him like that was not okay.

"Jesse is a wonderful person, and he would never do such a thing! Unlike some people. Finn, can't you just admit that you are too PROUD to be with me?"

"No, I can't, because it's not TRUE." Rachel let out a frustrated exhale. "Then what is your issue?"

"My issue is that.. that Jesse told me to stop talking to you, or else he would.." Rachel turned to him. Okay, now she was curious, not angry. What was this? Jesse seemed so sincere, so honest... "What, Finn?"

Finn sighed annoyedly, and glanced around, starting to see the glee kids filtering in. "Nevermind, go have fun with Wonderboy," He said with a bite to his tone before turning around and leaving without another word. Rachel felt like someone just punched her in the stomach. What could Jesse possibly have on Finn? No. Jesse wouldn't do that... Rachel felt out of some sort of loop, and she wanted in. She was sick and tired of being confused.

Rachel Berry stomped out of the other choir room's door in a true Rachel Berry fashion.


End file.
